Megan Gates

Megan Gates is Co-chair of Mintz Levin’s Securities & Capital Markets Practice. She counsels public companies on compliance and disclosure obligations, public and private financing matters, and merger and acquisition transactions, and advises clients on corporate governance matters such as Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Megan is frequently invited to speak at industry conferences on topics including securities offerings, corporate governance, and compliance matters.

The U.S. IPO market began 2017 with a solid start, with 25 IPOs raising nearly $10 billion in the first quarter and another 31 IPOs in the second quarter through May 15. We have a number of U.S. and non-U.S. clients moving ahead on U.S. IPO plans in 2017. Will the IPO market in the United States experience a renaissance? While IPOs in the U.S. fell off the map after a slowdown in 2015, the market looks to be bouncing back.

The 25 IPOs in Q1 2017 differs drastically from 2016’s first quarter, which had just 8 IPOs raising $0.7 billion. First quarter IPO activity in 2017 also reflected broad sector diversification, with energy, technology, and healthcare deals topping the lists. Tech raised the greatest amount of money thanks to the long-awaited Snap IPO of $3.4 billion, the largest IPO of a U.S. tech company since Facebook. Yet, the energy sector had the highest number of IPOs, with five companies going public last quarter—more than the total number of energy IPOs in all of 2016. [1]

Chart A: U.S. IPO Activity (2017 data through May 15, 2017)

These signs of life come after a drop off in IPOs in 2015 and 2016, a steep fall after the IPO boom of 2014. The U.S. IPO market has been slow to regain strength after the tech boom of the late 1990s, facing a particularly major blow after the 2008 financial crisis. With only 31 IPOs completed in 2008, the market had its lowest number of IPOs in over the last 20 years. 2014 marked the most active year for IPOs in the U.S. since 2000, with 275 IPOs and $86.6 billion raised. Market instability in the second half of 2015 and early 2016 hurt the U.S. IPO market, but I believe that the solid start to 2017 indicates a possible renaissance of companies going public. If the momentum carries into the following quarters, I believe we could see a steady revival of the IPO market from 2017 into the next few years. Still, there are a number of bigger companies that have continued to raise private capital and hold off on an IPO, including Airbnb, Lyft, and Houzz. Airbnb is leading the pack with $1 billion raised in its latest round of funding, while Lyft just closed a $600 million round. [2]

Chart B: Key US IPO Statistics

IPO Statistics for the First Quarter of 2017:

25 U.S. IPOs and $9.9 billion raised. This compares to 8 IPOs and $0.7 billion raised in the first quarter of 2016.

Average IPO performance in 1Q 2017: 11% gain.

Snap raised $3.4 billion in the largest US IPO since Alibaba in 2014, and the largest IPO of a US tech company since Facebook in 2012.

The quarter’s second-largest IPO, Blackstone’s $1.5 billion offering of home rental REIT Initiation Homes, was also a larger deal than any IPO in 2016.

Nearly half of all the IPOs in the first quarter were backed by private equity, beating venture capital for the first time since 2013.

The median deal size for the first quarter was $190 million, the largest it has been in years and double the full-year 2016 median.

Energy led the quarter in terms of deal count, with 5 IPOs. The Keane Group had the largest deal, raising $584.7 million.

Through May 15, 2017, there have been 56 U.S. IPOs, a 154.5% increase from the same date last year.

Global IPO issuance totaled $24.2 billion in the first quarter of 2017, with 70 deals closed. Asia Pacific led the market with 41% share of all proceeds raised, while North America took a close second with 39% share of proceeds.

[1]Please note that there will be some variance in the statistics for IPOs generally. This is because most data sets exclude extremely small initial public offerings and uniquely structured offerings that don’t match up with the more commonly understood public offering for operating companies. The IPO data in this post is based on information from Renaissance Capital- manager of IPO-focused ETFs- www.renaissancecapital.com.

Our partner Pamela B. Greene was recently quoted in a Boston Globe article focusing on a local company’s use of Regulation A+ (or “Reg A+”) as a new way to raise capital, and the benefits and risks that may be associated with this kind of offering. The rules allowing Regulation A+ were adopted by the SEC in March 2015, as mandated by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, and are designed to facilitate smaller companies’ access to capital. The rules enable smaller companies to offer and sell up to $50 million of securities in a 12-month period, subject to eligibility, disclosure and reporting requirements. A Cambridge, MA medical robotics company called Myomo is planning to complete an offering using this method. The article in which Pam is quoted can be found here.

The IPO market in 2016 was abysmal, especially for the life sciences sector. Annual IPO proceeds fell to the lowest level since 2003. The IPO market forecast for 2017 is uncertain. Some life sciences companies that went public during the last IPO wave ending in 2015 still have plenty of cash yet they have “hit the wall” clinically, making them “fallen angels”. In this environment, the “fallen angel” reverse merger has emerged as an attractive way for many promising life sciences companies to raise capital and to go public.

In response to these trends, my colleague Matt Gardella and I have assembled a stellar panel of experts for a discussion about fallen angel reverse mergers as an alternative to the traditional IPO. Please join us at Mintz Levin on Monday, March 6th starting at 3:00 PM to learn whether this important approach to going public might be right for your company. Our panel will provide the perspectives of the deal lawyer, the private company, the fallen angel, the investor, the investment banker, and the Nasdaq listing consultant. You will gain insights into the key issues involved in evaluating a fallen angel reverse merger strategy, negotiating a deal, smoothly completing a transaction, and being ready for life as a public company.

Please note: This panel is an in-person event at our Boston offices with a networking period afterwards.

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently issued proposed amendments to increase the financial thresholds in the definition of a “smaller reporting company” that, if adopted, will increase the number of issuers that qualify as smaller reporting companies and thereby would benefit from the scaled disclosure requirements. The proposed amendments are intended to promote capital formation and reduce compliance costs for smaller issuers, while maintaining investor protections.

Every year at around this time, the Mintz Levin securities lawyers are busy collaborating with our December fiscal year-end clients to prepare for the annual year-end reporting season, involving a flurry of 10-Ks, proxy statements, governance review and upkeep, and related matters. Pam Greene and I have worked together for several years now (more than we would care to admit!) on what we fondly refer to as the “year-end kickoff memo,” which you can find here. Each year, we focus on a combination of new developments, reminders of things to keep in mind, and anticipated “hot topics” from the perspective of regulators, shareholders and companies themselves. We are pleased this year to have some terrific contributions to the memo from our partner Bret Leone-Quick, who focuses on securities litigation and related governance issues. We welcome your questions on the memo and look forward to working with all of you on this important annual process.

Originally created by Congress in 1990, the EB-5 program was intended to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. Under a pilot immigration program first enacted in 1992 and regularly reauthorized since, certain EB-5 visas also are set aside for investors in Regional Centers designated by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, based on proposals for promoting economic growth. Unscrupulous parties have on occasion taken advantage of interested parties and perpetrated schemes in this area on people who are understandably keen to take part in this otherwise very beneficial program.

Our colleagues at the EB-5 Matters blog have written an interesting post on one such case in Florida. Check it out here.

On Monday, October 19, I’ll be moderating a panel on Strategic Considerations for Navigating a Dual-track M&A and Initial Public Offering Pathway at the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Annual Conference here in Boston. I’ll be joined on the panel by Pete Zorn, Esq., VP of Corporate Development and General Counsel of Albireo Pharma; Stan Piekos, former CFO of NEXX Systems; and Joe Ferra, Managing Director in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group at JMP Securities. If you’re attending the ACC conference, we hope you can join us that day at 4:30 for what we expect will be a great discussion. Continue Reading ACC Annual Conference Panel: Dual-Track M&A and IPO Pathways

On October 13 from 1 – 2:30 pm ET, join Pam Greene and a panel of other experts for a timely webinar covering Regulation A+: Practical Tips and Guidance for Launching a Mini-IPO. Regulation A+ went into effect in June 2015 to allow private US and Canadian based companies to raise equity – up to $20 million under Tier I and up to $50 million under Tier II – from both accredited and nonaccredited investors, subject to certain limitations.

During this webinar, our distinguished panel, including Pam Greene, member in the Corporate and Securities Practice at Mintz Levin; TJ Berdzik, CFA, of StockCross Financial Services, Inc.; Maggie Chou, of OTC Markets; Yoel Goldfeder, of Vstock Transfer; and Rudy Singh, of S2 Filings, will discuss the legal and business considerations in launching a Tier II Regulation A+ offering, how investors can achieve liquidity through the OTC Market, and why many are calling Tier II offerings a “Mini-IPO”.

We hope you can take part in what is sure to be an informative discussion. Click here to register.

Mintz Levin Partner Pam Greene was interviewed on Friday by Law360 regarding the advent of Regulation A+ and its anticipated impact on capital-raising by smaller companies. Pam noted that Tier 2 offerings can be likened to a “mini IPO” because they let companies raise capital under less onerous requirements than a full-fledged public company faces. “This will be an easier path for smaller companies to go public that is less expensive than an IPO,” Greene said.

Last week, I attended a conference organized by the illustrious Broc Romanek of TheCorporateCounsel.net, whose blog and website provide untold amounts of useful, practical and timely guidance to securities practitioners. The conference provided an opportunity for 100 women from the securities and corporate governance worlds to network with and learn from each other. One of the highlights for me was hearing from the indomitable Peggy Foran, Chief Governance Officer of Prudential Financial, Inc. and by any measure one of the foremost luminaries in the world of corporate governance.

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